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A series of detailed human rights reports about serious Israeli abuses during the recent Gaza conflict has given rise to an intense campaign by the Israeli government and some of its uncritical supporters to smear the messengers and change the subject.

Irwin Cotler's attack in these pages on Judge Richard Goldstone's UN-mandated investigation of the conflict is of a piece with these efforts ("The Goldstone Mission - Tainted to the core," August 17 and 19). Rather than addressing the sad reality in Gaza, he effectively offers an apology for Israeli abuse.

Cotler makes the obligatory concession that Israel should not be "above the law," but he never admits any validity to the many reports of Israeli abuses in Gaza. Instead, he tries to discount Goldstone's...